Blogging lull

I can't believe I haven't updated for six months! What a lazy mare.

I have been knitting in that time, of course, but I barely even remember to upload my projects to Ravelry anymore. This is because since July I've barely used the laptop to go online, owing to my wonderful iPhone. Unfortunately Ravelry is not very easy to navigate as there's no mobile version.

So, since July what has come off my needles has been (as far as I can remember): a hat, two dinosaurs, three nativity characters, a big cuddly pirate, half a sock, LOTS of blanket squares, and some colourwork intended for a surprise for my husband. Wow, that doesn't seem like much for six months! Surely there's more than that?

Another reason I haven't been online much is that I've been diagnosed with epilepsy and despite being signed off work for a couple of months the medication I started on was pretty shocking, so for the first couple of months I did nothing but sleep. It's pretty hard to knit in your sleep!

More recently, I've been quilting. Along with knitting quilting always seemed to be one of those things I wanted to do but didn't really think I could do. Turns out I can! Nick's been buying me gorgeous fabrics and I've been putting together a patchwork bedspread, which will eventually be quilted.

All of these things are helping me to be the woman I always wanted to be. By the time the doctors let me start trying again I'll be the kind of Mum I want to be too :)

Ramble and no photo?! WTF?!

Oh my goodness, I take back everything I said about socks being simple!

I don't know whether it's just the pattern I'm using but I really can't understand what I'm supposed to be doing with the heel.

I could look it up on youtube or knitwitch or something, but of course what I've actually done is scout around for patterns for toys knit in the round instead. Boooo to socks! I really don't get it.

I do want to finish Nick's honeymoon socks at some stage, but while I'm feeling so rough (I have a cold on top of my post-wedding crash now too) I just don't want to have to concentrate too much.

I came across Danger Crafts on Etsy and have completely fallen in love with the Daphne and Delilah pattern, but I'm not sure I can manage it just yet. I haven't mastered Magic Loop and I don't really have any spare DPNs (apart from the ones free on Let's Knit a while ago), plus I shouldn't be buying patterns when I'm already stressing about not having any money since the wedding.

I'm still trying to get hold of Alan Dart's Irrisistable Gifts To Knit book which is supposedly available in Sainsbury's and on the MyFavouriteMagazines website, but the only place I ever find it is on Ebay. I can't afford to buy it this month so I'll probably see it everywhere I go.

Well, this was more of a ramble than a blog post so I should probably sign off here!

Socks!

I haven't updated this blog in so long! I can't even remember how many projects I've finished since that ugly little clown (I think if I take the awful hat off he might look okay!) but the hearts for the wedding invitations and the top tier of the wedding cake are certainly worth a mention!

I'm also on my first pair of socks now, which I consider a massive leap for a novice knitter! I went to RingARosie in Whitley Bay while I was on honeymoon and as I didn't have a specific project in mind I didn't know how to choose from all of their lovely yarn! They had a display of sock yarn so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. Nick chose some self-striping yarn and I bought some bamboo DPNs, and despite every other (short-lived) attempt failing, I got it straight away!

Okay, so I was doing it inside-out, but a quick message on Ravelry had that fixed and now I have half a sock hanging from my (four) needle(s)!

I'm having a hard time recovering from the wedding and honeymoon so I haven't been doing much of anything, but picking the sock up from time to time is surprisingly relaxing. I still don't think I'm going to turn into a sock knitter though :s

I don't know when I'll stop feeling like a novice knitter, but I don't feel quite so nervous when I walk into a proper yarn shop anymore!

Clowning around

Since I finished Sam's teddy my health has dipped seriously and I've been avoiding any *real* knitting (even though I STILL haven't finished the wedding cake).

I've done a clown from Jean Greenhowe's little gift dolls because I wanted something small, simple and colourful, but I don't like him - the curse of Jean (I always either love her patterns, or bloody well hate them!). I don't think I stuffed him properly and for some reason his hat just wouldn't go right no matter what I did.

The problem is, I was hoping he'd be one of the toys for the entertainment packs for the wedding - we're doing boxes for each child so they don't get bored, and I was hoping to knit a little gift doll for each box. Considering how much time I'm going to have to spend doing nothing I think I should manage (I'd need another six dolls), but I don't know whether he's good enough to put in or whether he's an embarrassment?

It's always difficult to tell when it's your own work as you get so critical, but as I really don't like him I think I'd be uncomfortable whatever.

Sam's teddy

This is a teddy I made for Sam's first birthday. I decided to make it on the Thursday night before his birthday party on Monday afternoon. It was a bit of a constant knit but it was worthwhile and I ended up loving the teddy. I know that with Jean's patterns I tend to either utterly fall in love with the finished objects or completely hate them, so I took a chance and was lucky. Sam seemed to like him as he gave him a slug (kiss) as soon as it was unwrapped. I don't know whether he'll be allowed to play with it until he's older as it's kind of fuzzy yarn and there are places where you can see the stuffing through the shaping, but he'd look good sitting on a shelf in his bedroom anyway.

I forgot to blog about this while I was knitting (mostly as I didn't even have time to eat, let alone blog!) but I wanted to put him in here so I could look back at him. I think he's probably my favourite project yet <3

Yarn appreciation!

My coffee table AFTER stash sorting <3

"If you're going to leave your stash everywhere, why not make it look pretty?"

That was the thought in my head when I balled all of the skeins sitting around my living room and put them in a fruit bowl. I'm knitting a blanket in squares in between all of the stressy wedding knitting, so I tend to just leave skeins of DK all over the place. They look much prettier in the bowl!

I'm quite tempted to get some long glass vases and ball up various colours purely for decorative purposes. Yarn just looks so scrummy!

Dwip creation

As requested, here is the story of the creation of the Dwips.

The little Dwip named Bub was created after my niece got excited about aliens, although I wouldn't like to upset Bub by calling him an alien.

Bub was created using 3mm straight needles, Dk yarn and a little imagination. Dwips can be any size or colour, but Bub was 25 stitches wide and around 5 or 6cm high. He has a couple of stripes, three toes on each foot and a long tail.

Bub's body is simply a rectangle. By stuffing him lightly and pulling up the top corners (which should be the cast-on edge if you want ears/horns) his head had little spikes, a bit like ears. The shaping just comes from the way you stuff the body.

The feet were created by casting on two stitches and knitting one row and then increasing into both stitches and knitting another row, breaking the yarn and repeating this twice more. Then knit across all stitches and knit a couple of rows. Each toe will have threads that need weaving in, and they can be used to stitch the toes into shape.

The tail can be given vertical stripes by simply knitting a couple of long rows, or horizontal stripes by knitting a couple of stitches and increasing the number of rows.

Stitching on the toes and tail make the Dwip stand up, so don't worry about the base not being flat.

Alternatively, Dwips can have long dangly legs to sit on the edge of shelves, or they can have short tails. They can be multicoloured, they can be one colour, they can be knit in the round, they can have beads and buttons... the possibilities are endless!

There will be more Dwips, so stay tuned!